This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

What they’re saying in Kansas City: Royals winning ‘like a pack of dogs’

Monday's loss is all but forgotten as Royals lauded for “whipping” inflicted on the Jays in Tuesday’s game.

Toronto infielder Cliff Pennington became the first full-time position player to pitch in a post-season game with his relief in the 9th inning of Game 4 of the American League Championship Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Kansas City Royals at the Rogers Centre. (Carlos Osorio / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

There’s nothing as cleansing as a good freak-out and a cry to clear the air sometimes.

That’s how it is down in Kansas City, as their Royals won big-time on Tuesday over the Blue Jays after dropping a stinker on Monday.

Today, Royals fans have put down the Kleenex and are heaping praise on the team for selfless play and general spunky good fortune.

“They are one game from another World Series because of their pack-attack approach,” the Kansas City Star noted.

After the Monday loss, the mood in Missouri was far fouler.

Article Continued Below

Then, the paper couldn’t demonize pitcher Johnny Cueto enough, with coverage that included the headline: “More than 100 years of playoff baseball include no precedent for Cueto’s stink.”

Today, such embarrassing outbursts are forgiven and forgotten, like a rude noise at the dinner table.

Locals can instead read their team is like a first-class plough: “These Royals can be an overwhelming machine when the parts are in harmony, and for the last two years — finally — the parts have almost always been in harmony. Each of them has a story, some better known than others, all of them working together for the best baseball Kansas City has seen in a generation.”

Again, there were historical references to put the action into a wider context, with the 14-2 victory described as “a whipping so complete that Blue Jays utilityman Cliff Pennington became the first position player to pitch a postseason game since at least 1914. Even the fans, who threw so much beer on the field in the last series, seemed to get a kick out of that.”

Today, Kansas City fans are provided with a choice of scrappy metaphors to help them fully grasp just how worth living life now is: “When the Royals are right, they are more buckshot than bombs, winning the fight like a pack of dogs rather than one lion.”

Statistics buttress the euphoria in the local paper: “The Royals are outscoring (33-16), outhitting (.331-.233) and outslugging (.496-.346) the Blue Jays in this series.”

There is no mention of the offending Cueto. Instead, readers today are allowed to bask in their fielder “Alex Gordon’s relentlessness, or catcher Salvador Perez’s “interminable smile and toughness” and pitcher Luke Hochevar’s “professional resiliency.”

Down in Texas, the tears are dried but the pouting continues.

Rangers’ pitcher Derek Holland went on the Ben and Skin Show on KRLD-FM 105.3 The Fan to discuss the end of the Rangers season at the hands of the Blue Jays in the opening postseason round.

Holland manfully didn’t cry once as he said he just didn’t like the way the Jay’s Jose Bautista flipped his bat after hitting his ALDS series winning run earlier this month:

“I don’t care if he hits a home run off me, that’s fine, I give up home runs, I’ve struck people out, I do all that stuff, it’s how baseball goes,” Holland said. “But the way you do it — is he better than the game? Yeah, you lived in the moment, that’s great. You hit a home run? Yeah, you can pimp it. That’s fine. But the way he did it, I just think that one — that’s a bit much… I’m not a big fan of him.”

Holland said he’s now rooting for Kansas City, where he has buddies.

“I know they don’t seem to get along with Toronto either,” Holland said.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com